Modelagem do transporte de sedimentos na Zona Costeira da Barreira do Inferno - RN, através do SMC-Brasil

Abstract

The state of Rio Grande do Norte/Brazil has been presenting coastal erosion events along its coast, in varying degrees of intensity. The stretches affected by coastal erosion are attributed mainly to the reduced fluvial contribution of sediments, due to the small size of the regional fluvial basins and the loss of sediments to the continent with the formation of dune fields. The knowledge of the wave climate, as well as sediment transport rate of an area, is a preponderant factor in studies of coastal erosion. This work had as study area the Barreira do Inferno beach. The objectives were to use the coastal modeling tool SMC-Brasil (i) to know the wave climate off the Barreira do Inferno beach by analyzing the data provided by the propagation points contained in the SMC-Brasil 60 years database; (ii) to perform analysis of the sedimentary dynamics of the beach through the longitudinal sediment transport model; (iii) to identify the sensitivity of the SMC-Brasil to the insertion of a nautical chart interpolated by the Natural Neighbor and Kriging methods. Among the results, it should be noted that the wave climate around the Barreira do Inferno beach showed a greater tendency of waves coming from the E and ESE directions. The annual longitudinal sediment transport is approximately 50,000 m³/year in the South-North direction. The differences presented by the Natural Neighbor and Kriging methods, in the sediment transport calculation, were negligible. Therefore, the model showed low sensitivity to the interpolation methods used in the sediment transport calculation.